U.S. tracks terror in Filipino jungles

January 22, 2002|By Uli Schmetzer, Tribune foreign correspondent.

MANILA — The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas of the southern Philippines, the newest target of U.S. troops, are a brutal lot. They lock their hostages in windowless huts, decapitate those for whom ransom is not paid and mutilate the bodies of Filipino soldiers.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo defines the Abu Sayyaf as "a money-crazed gang of criminals." The group's barbarism and mercenary bent, according to Western diplomats and other experts, have cost the guerrillas the funding they allegedly once received from Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Nevertheless, the campaign against international terrorism is bringing American soldiers to the Philippines to help against Abu Sayyaf. U.S. military cargo planes flying into the southern port city of Zamboanga are bringing soldiers, engineering equipment and communications gear.

About 660 U.S. soldiers are to take part in the mission, under rules that will allow them to defend themselves but not engage the guerrillas. About 160 members of the Special Forces will work closely with Filipino troops as they track the Abu Sayyaf fighters through the jungles of Basilan Island.

For the last eight months the guerrillas have moved from camp to camp, always a step ahead of Filipino troops. The rebels drag along their kidnapping victims, including American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. Villagers on Basilan claim they saw the American couple being transferred to another hide-out a week ago.

Since the Burnhams were kidnapped from Las Palmas resort on Palawan in May, the Abu Sayyaf has captured and released about 50 hostages for an average ransom of $20,000.

But the guerrillas are asking for $10 million for the Burnhams. "Americans are rich," said the group's spokesman, Abu Sabaya. "They can pay much more."

In its early days, the Abu Sayyaf said it was fighting for an Islamic state on Mindanao. It received funding from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and from Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, according to U.S. and Filipino officials.

Severing links

As the Abu Sayyaf movement degenerated, however, the group lost support. Former allies dubbed the kidnapping of children and the abuse of women "un-Islamic." Anti-terrorism experts and defectors from the group believe Al Qaeda severed its link at least two years ago. So did other militant groups, including Moro nationalist guerrillas on Mindanao.

The Abu Sayyaf attacks have helped bring to a standstill the Philippines' tourism industry. Yet Arroyo's decision to take advantage of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and invite in American troops has caused a backlash in her country.

"People might think the soldiers are there for combat," Arroyo said this weekend as she tried to calm the nation. "They are there to do training."

Arroyo said Sunday that she is calling a meeting of her national security council to define the scope of the U.S. engagement. The Filipino Senate, meanwhile, is to hold a formal inquiry this week.

"First they call in the U.S. troops, then they don't want them anymore," said political analyst Abby Tan. "It's typically Filipino."

The arrival of the U.S. advisers extends the international war against terrorism to a jungle island whose caves and mountains serve as formidable hideouts for the Abu Sayyaf, loosely translated as "Bearer of the Sword."

The Abu Sayyaf hit the international spotlight in April 2000 with an armed raid on the remote Malaysian diving resort on Sipadan Island. Eleven of the 21 hostages it captured were Western tourists.

The Sipadan caper turned into a windfall. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi paid an estimated $25 million ransom for the freedom of the Westerners as a humanitarian gesture.

The ransom allowed the guerrillas to buy speedboats able to outpace the Philippine navy's antiquated fleet and to purchase weapons on the open market.

"Now they outgun and outrun us," lamented a naval commander.

Local support for rebels

The poor and mainly Muslim population is supportive of the Abu Sayyaf, a loyalty encouraged not by their cause but the money, the boats and the livestock that the rebels dispense after a major ransom has been collected.

The group's success in evading army patrols and moving their prisoners from base to base is often blamed on the symbiosis that exists between Muslim extremists and soldiers who used to be members of Muslim separatist movements before they changed sides.